Raphael Konforti, the senior director of fitness at YouFit, shares how to find the right recovery solution for different health club needs.
Recovery continues to grow as an offering gyms need to include for all types of member bases. Whether you’re still on the fence or on the bandwagon, make sure you understand your options for incorporating recovery regardless of cost and the science behind it. We often think of the highest-level recovery tools and costs associated with them.
Listen to any celebrity and they’ll rattle off their regime of cryotherapy, massage, infrared saunas and hyperbaric chambers. It’s easy to justify that most members don’t train enough, or hard enough to warrant a dedicated recovery program and amenities. However, all members benefit from recovery, both for their fitness journey and as loyal customers. Recovery solution services also don’t have to break the budget.
Breaking Down and Reframing Recovery
Taking a step back, recovery implies that the body went through stress. The formula in every CPT textbook is this: Stress + Recovery = Adaption
Looking through the fitness industry lens, stress means working out. Zooming out further, stress is much broader. The nervous system exists in either a sympathetic – fight or flight – state or parasympathetic – rest and digest state. Recovery only occurs in the parasympathetic state.
Also, exercise isn’t the only way to trigger a sympathetic state – mentally challenging moments from heavy traffic on the way to the airport or a pandemic trigger this state. It’s safe to say your members and prospective members are dealing with both types of stress.
Recovery is a term, and connotation that works well for bouncing back from the physical stress, however the tools available for recovery also work to recover from mental stress. Knowing who your members are and what they want is where you start to define what recovery looks like for you and how to attract members with it.
As an example, reframing “recovery” to regeneration, restoration or energy optimization all speak differently to customers. If you run a recovery area in your gym, you’ve seen the members who come in and perform traditional exercise for 10 minutes, lay in the massage chair for 20 minutes and then leave. If they came in mentally drained and stressed, that could be the perfect gym visit that keeps them coming back. If they leave your facility feeling better than when they walked in that’s a win. Growing into their “third place” creates massive loyalty and referrals.
Developing Recovery Programs
Depending on the level of investment you’re ready to make in recovery, there are several options you can incorporate. Before going into those details, it’s important to call out the best recovery solution tool in the world is totally free: sleep. Sleep drives the majority of recovery from physical and mental stress. Just as you can’t out-train a bad diet, you can’t out recover poor sleep.
Low Investment Recovery Offerings
Create content to share with your members via email campaign and social media. There are many free recovery protocols you can share with members like creating a higher quality sleep environment, breathing techniques and stretching flows. The more engaged in wellness your members are – in the gym or at home – it’s a win for your business. Double down on that content and use it to educate your staff on recovery so they can speak to members.
Develop a live recovery workshop. Take the content you’ve developed for your members and turn it into a live monthly or quarterly workshop. With a small labor budget and passionate fitness professional these can be a huge success and build a community around recovery.
Medium Investment Recovery Options
Offer recovery programs and classes. The equipment investment and sunk cost is lower here and it’s still a highly effective solution. We always think of working out; instead think of how you can work in. Working out uses up energy in the short term where working in builds energy in the short term. Yoga classes typically check the box for most gyms but there can be so much more. Whether it’s a regular timeslot on the schedule or special, consider adding recovery yoga – yoga with foam rolling – breathing classes, meditation classes and even wellness workshops on recovery lead by personal trainers.
Partner with local recovery-focused businesses for an open house. There are many massage therapists willing to provide chair massages in exchange for the opportunity to get leads. There are many facilities solely focused on recovery that can bring some of that to your facility. Rather than purchasing the equipment, see who you can partner with. These facilities usually only have very expensive recovery equipment making it a great member perk to receive discounts by getting a membership at both locations.
Create a dedicated recovery space and empower your team to assist members. Many locations have a stretching area with mats and foam rollers which is a start. Adding more self-service recovery equipment like percussive massage devices is relatively inexpensive. There’s technology now to make sure they don’t walk out the door and educating members on them makes a great talking point for trainers to pick up personal training clients. Also, turning the Group X room into a recovery room during down time with low lighting and soft music creates a space for members to decompress is easily facilitated.
High-End Recovery Options
To wow members and prospects, and be known for recovery in your area, you’ll need to invest. Recovery solution areas work best when they have dedicated and quiet space away from the free weights. As expensive as recovery equipment gets, your customers notice when you’ve dipped your toe in versus jumped in and fully believe in equipment.
Getting one massage chair, PowerPlate or Normatec set looks more like trying to check off a box to “offer” recovery versus believing in it. Plus, when there is only one of something new, the scarcity principle works in reverse – it ends up going into whatever space is open. If you’re going to invest in a high-end product, make sure there’s no way the members or prospects can miss it by purchasing more than one.
Going even higher-end into cryotherapy, float tanks or red light therapy will require calculating out an ROI of including it in a high-end membership, offering a recovery membership or a la carte services. This is where you need to speak with your member based and understand the economics of your clubs.
Overall, the recovery solution trend is no longer a trend but an expectation from customers as new products become mainstream. At the same time, many members don’t understand what recovery means and how to apply it. No matter what level of investment you take, be sure to education your team and members alike on the science and how to apply it.
